SUV crashes into nail salon, 8 hospitalized

Denis J. O'Malley

Updated 12:24 am, Saturday, April 13, 2013

Police invetigate how a SUV managed to crash into the Pretty Nails salon in the Stratford Square shopping center on Friday afternoon April 12, 2013. Several customers and workers in the store were injured.

STRATFORD -- Busy working on a customer's manicure in Pretty Nails Spa on Friday, Kai Tan heard a "pow," looked up and saw a Ford Explorer barrelling through the Barnum Avenue Cutoff salon.

"I just heard `pow' and I just saw a car inside," the 26-year-old employee said.

The Explorer, driven by an unidentified man arrested by town police for driving under the influence, crashed through the salon's glass storefront at about 4 p.m. and pinned the business' male manager beneath it.

Employees and customers who escaped injury ran out in a panic, police said.

A total of eight victims were hospitalized, one of whom was described as being in "very serious" condition and another in critical condition, said Stratford Assistant Fire Chief John Conway.

Tan described a typical, if not quiet scene inside the salon before the SUV -- which he said had a child passenger -- slammed through the storefront.

Two or three customers sat while employees painted their nails.

A group of employees made small talk by the window.

"Some people were sitting together just talking and the car just goes inside," he said.

Shards of glass rained down from the glass storefront, salon chairs tumbled through the business and those who escaped injury ran out as the Explorer lurched forward after initially stopping.

"I turned around to see if everyone was OK, and the car just started so I ran out," Tan said.

Town police officers walked in and out of the void left by the crash.

On one side of the opening, a sign advertising $25 manicure/pedicures hung in a window; on the other a side-view mirror from the Explorer lay among shards of glass just outside the store.

As an officer began rolling measuring tape, apparently recording the distance from a stop sign in the plaza's parking lot to the storefront, a digital ticker hanging over the hole in the business still scrolled its message: "Pretty Nails Spa ... Open 7 Days."

Anyone with information on the crash can contact Stratford police at 203-385-4158 or 203-385-4159.